SHILLONG: The Border Security Force and Meghalaya Police are at loggerheads over alleged smuggling of cattle to Bangladesh in Gasuapara of West Garo Hills district which shares a long boundary with Bangladesh.
BSF sources said on Tuesday that based on inputs about the smuggling of cattle their personnel had asked a truck carrying cattle to stop, but it did not and instead put the lives of the personnel at risk while speeding away.
According to BSF, the truck eventually stopped at Gasuapara police station which gives rise to suspicion there is police-smuggler nexus.
Officials from BSF also said that a few days back, a similar incident happened in the same area when policemen tried to rescue some people with cattle the BSF personnel were trying to size.
A video of the incident shared on social media showed a policeman engaged in a confrontation with personnel of BSF.
On the other hand, Meghalaya Police officials said that the district shares a long border with Bangladesh which the BSF is authorised to guard, but they cannot come on the national highway and check vehicles for cattle.
According to the officials, the BSF is also supposed to inform the local police when they conduct checking along the highway but they do not.
Terming the insinuation of BSF that police are helping cattle smugglers as baseless, the officials added that all cattle in the area cannot be deemed to be for smuggling or are being smuggled as 99 per cent of the population there are meat consumers. They said the BSF can seize cattle on the border but not on the road when it is in transit.
“How can they prove in the court that the cattle were being smuggled when they are in transit on a national highway,” an official said while adding that the BSF personnel are acting like gau rakshaks.
The official also said that the BSF personnel after catching the cattle go to the police stations and file FIRs and hand over the cattle to the police stations which do not have sheds to keep the animals.
